(a) Each referral, proceeding, report, investigative file, record, or other information received, gathered, created, or maintained by the program or its employees, consultants, work site monitors, or agents relating to a physician or physician assistant is privileged and confidential and is not subject to disclosure under Chapter 552, Government Code, or to discovery, subpoena, or other means of legal compulsion for release to any person except as provided by this chapter.
(b) Notwithstanding Subsection (a), the program may report to the board or the physician assistant board, as appropriate, the name and pertinent information relating to impairment of a physician or physician assistant.

Terms Used In Texas Occupations Code 167.010

  • Board: means the Texas Medical Board. See Texas Occupations Code 151.002
  • Continuing threat to the public welfare: means a real danger to the health of a physician's patients or to the public from the acts or omissions of the physician caused through the physician's lack of competence, impaired status, or failure to care adequately for the physician's patients, as determined by:
    (A) the board;
    (B) a medical peer review committee in this state;
    (C) a physician licensed to practice medicine in this state or otherwise lawfully practicing medicine in this state;
    (D) a physician engaged in graduate medical education or training; or
    (E) a medical student. See Texas Occupations Code 151.002
  • Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
  • Person: means an individual, unless the term is expressly made applicable to a partnership, association, or corporation. See Texas Occupations Code 151.002
  • Physician: means a person licensed to practice medicine in this state. See Texas Occupations Code 151.002
  • Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.

(c) Notwithstanding Subsection (a), the program shall make a report to the board or the physician assistant board, as appropriate, regarding a physician or physician assistant if the medical director or the governing board determines that the physician or physician assistant poses a continuing threat to the public welfare. If requested by the board or the physician assistant board, a report under this subsection must include all information in the possession or control of the program.